Last Minute Changes
by KitKatt0430
Summary: When Hartley discovers the problem with the accelerator, Eobard wants to just fire him. There's just one problem... Hartley is Barry's soulmate in this timeline. It's an unexpected wrinkle and that means Eobard is going to have to think fast if he's going to keep up the charade long enough to finish the accelerator and turn Barry into the Flash. Barry Allen Week - May 5 - Soulmate


Summary: When Hartley discovers the problem with the accelerator, Eobard wants to just fire him. Maybe wreck his career for good measure. There's just one problem... Hartley is Barry's soulmate in this timeline. It's an unexpected wrinkle and that means Eobard is going to have to think fast if he's going to keep up the charade long enough to finish the accelerator and turn Barry into the Flash.

Notes: I didn't intend for there to be so much Eobard PoV in here, but I pretty much wrote all his scenes first, then went back and patched in Barry's parts.

Barry Allen Week - May 5 - Soulmate

_**Last Minute Changes**_

The first sign that Eobard had irrevocably altered the timeline manifested when he finally had Gideon set up in the new STAR Labs building. He'd installed her in the Time Vault, along with a hidden niche for his Reverse Flash suit and various other futuristic knickknacks he didn't want to risk keeping in his house. He'd booted up the new pedestal interface - far superior to the hand held device he'd loaded her into when he'd copied her program from the Flash Museum all those years ago in the future - and asked to see the newspaper clipping.

Odds were they were back on track to the Flash disappearing in the Red Skies Crisis, but Eobard had to check to be sure.

So Gideon pulled up the article and there was the Flash back on the front page again. Eobard was so relieved by the title and picture being back to what he'd expected that he almost - almost - overlooked the by-line.

Iris West-Thawne.

"Gideon," Eobard had growled, panic in his chest, "what is the cause of that by-line? It should be Iris West-Allen, not West-Thawne."

"According to my records, Iris West will marry her soulmate, Edward Thawne, approximately..."

"They're not soulmates," Eobard interrupted sharply. No, no, no, this wasn't good, this wasn't good at all. "Iris West and Barry Allen are soulmates. You know this. Barry Allen was your creator; he was married to Iris West when he created you."

"The timeline has changed," Gideon responded calmly, her tone almost-not-quite chiding.

Gideon did not like being interrupted.

"What does the timeline changing have to do with their soulmates changing?" Eobard demanded. "I changed the timeline after they were born, not before."

"Soulmate marks do not become attuned to a soul's match until the ages of fourteen to eighteen, though there are cases of extreme outliers in either direction," Gideon corrected. "In the timeline I originated in, Barry Allen and Iris West became attuned to each other at the age of fifteen. In this timeline, their attunements clearly changed. As I only have access to electronic news records from potential futures, I cannot say with certainty who Barry's soulmate is as of yet. Iris West's attunement has already settled. Barry Allen's has not."

Eobard let out a frustrated noise and punched one of the walls. Iris West and Barry Allen were only fifteen. Edward Thawne was eighteen. There was no reason that Iris West and Edward Thawne couldn't be soulmates while still ensuring that Edward Thawne and Monica Myers had a son named James Thawne. How, exactly, Eobard was going manage that, he had no idea.

He'd have to carefully monitor Barry through Gideon for the settling of his soulmate as well.

Things should not have been this damn difficult.

* * *

When Iris' soulmark shows up, it's on her left shoulder. A crossed gun and fountain pen, sort of like a coat of arms.

Barry checks his own shoulder as soon as he can, so hopeful at what he'll see... but what he finds is normal, unmarred skin. No soulmark.

When two people's souls become attuned, their soulmark shows up at the same time. When they find each other, their soulmarks change from shades of gray to full on color and sort of... buzz? Or heat up a little. Or... well, there are a lot of conflicting descriptions of how a soulmark feels when a person encounters their soulmate for the first time after the soulmark appears.

So, really, Barry should have known as soon as he saw the mark on Iris' shoulder after school that day that he wasn't her soulmate. Because he saw the soulmark and felt nothing.

Still, first crushes are hard to let go of. Barry cries himself to sleep that night. But in the morning, when he sees Iris and her sleeveless shirt showing off the gray soulmark, Barry doesn't feel like his heart is breaking anymore. And, slowly, he starts to let go.

* * *

Barry's attunement didn't settle until he was eighteen. It drove Eobard utterly nuts waiting.

Gideon had kept Eobard up to date on the most likely candidates for Barry's soulmate. Cisco Ramon had a high probability while Barry was still fifteen, but sometime shortly after Barry turned sixteen something must have happened because Cisco dropped off the radar entirely. Patty Spivot was a noteworthy contender as well. Linda Park, Alison Garret, Julian Desmond, and Ralph Dibny all rose to be highly likely timelines at one point or the other, with Alison Garret the only name unknown to Eobard. But each name faded to nothing... as a new name climbed the ranks, settling on Barry's eighteenth birthday to 100%.

Hartley Rathaway.

The first time Hartley's name had come up on Gideon's list of potential soulmates for Barry, Eobard had dismissed him. The name was familiar, vaguely, and Eobard had eventually recalled that the Rathaways of Rathaway Industries had a son by that name. Something of a genius, according to reporters. But considering he was a rich kid, he was probably less genius and more well connected. Eobard hadn't given the young man another thought as all the other names had higher chances of being Barry's soulmate, their potential rising and falling while Hartley's potential stayed a steady 5 percent.

Until one day Hartley's likelihood of being Barry's soulmate started jumping. No longer 5% percent of the timelines but 10%. Then twenty. Then forty-five... and then on the morning of Barry's eighteenth birthday, Gideon greeted Eobard with, "good morning, Professor Thawne. Barry's attunement has settled. He and Hartley Rathaway are soulmates."

Looking back, Eobard manages to narrow down the even that most likely cause their attunement to become the most likely. On the day Hartley's percentages started going up, he'd been disowned by his parents.

A young man, purportedly a genius, abandoned by his family and sporting a newly settled soulmark?

Eobard smirked. Controlling Barry's soulmate was going to be easy.

* * *

Barry's own soulmark appears on the morning of his eighteenth birthday. He falls asleep, seventeen and unmarked, and wakes up eighteen with a lightning bolt crossed with a flute.

He's so busy staring at the image on his wrist that Barry walks into his bedroom door frame, the bathroom door frame, nearly slipped getting out of the shower, and fell down the last five steps on the staircase. Iris is concerned until she sees Barry's alright and finds out what he's so distracted by. And then she's too busy laughing at him for being a ridiculous klutz to help Barry explain anything to Joe.

Joe thinks its pretty hilarious too.

But Barry's swept up in the mystery of things. He wants to know who his soulmate is now. What pronouns does this person use? What's their favorite color? Are they interested in science? Do they like Star Trek? What about Harry Potter?

Will they believe Barry when he says his father is innocent?

* * *

It took about a week to track down Hartley Rathaway.

Hartley was in his third year at college with a 4.0 and well on track to graduating a semester early with a BS in physics. If Eobard had been paying attention to the internship program, he'd have found the kid faster, as Hartley had applied to the program already. After Eobard finished face-palming, he marched down the HR department, had them pull up Rathaway's rather impressive (for a college student) resume and made it clear they were hiring him even if they had to invent an entirely new internship position to do so.

Thankfully, there were still several positions open and Hartley was offered a position in one of the accelerator-tangential projects.

Even more impressive, however, was the fact that Hartley was a genius even by Eobard's standards. The kid's social skills weren't the greatest, but neither were Eobard's. Despite Hartley being Barry Allen's soulmate, Eobard felt drawn to the young man. He cultivated a friendship with Hartley because it was advantageous, but he surprised himself by actually meaning it the first time he called Hartley - now a full time employee and a good candidate for STAR Labs' post-grad education program - a friend.

He can't ever entirely forget that Hartley is linked to the Flash, though. The gray soulmate mark on Hartley's right wrist is that of a lightning bolt and a flute and while Hartley often wears gloves that cover the mark, he doesn't always and its just... there.

Eobard wonders what the flute represents about Hartley; obviously the lighting bolt represents Barry and the Flash, but the flute? That's just odd. Though... it does tug at Eobard's thoughts sometimes. Like he's forgetting something, not an important something or anything like that, but... something he should have paid better attention to, perhaps.

Once Hartley is firmly under Eobard's thumb, he starts trying to set up meet cutes between Hartley and Barry. But Hartley's busy with his post-grad degree program and Eobard regrets, just a little, pushing Hartley to get his doctorate. There's only a few years left until the accelerator is ready to go and it'd be so much easier to keep track of Barry if he and Hartley were together already.

Pretty much every single one of Eobard's attempts to play match maker fail horribly. Once he even caused a car wreck - unrelated group of people, no one was badly hurt, Hartley fucking went home rather than detour around the damn wreck and Eobard threw up his hands in defeat. Obviously Hartley and Barry were fated to meet. It'd happen, Eobard just needed to back off and let it happen.

Eobard had never been patient, though, and becoming a speedster had only made his impatience worse.

* * *

Barry turns at the same time the guy next to him does and they sort of smack right into each other.

Coffee goes everywhere and Barry is just mortified, stammering an apology and so freaked out that it doesn't register at first.

His soulmark is itching.

Barry can't help following through on the impulse to scratch at it, only to find that the other guy is doing the same thing and...

And the soulmark on Barry's wrist is in full technicolor. Yellow lightning, a silvery-blue flute...

"Hi," the other guy... Barry's soulmate says. His voice is hesitant. "I'm... I'm Hartley Rathaway." There's a matching soulmark on his own wrist.

"I'm Barry Allen. It is so wonderful to meet you. Despite the coffee everywhere. Which I'm still really sorry about."

Hartley laughed and, wow, he had a lovely laugh.

"That's fine. It was my fault too. Let me buy you a new one and we can exchange information. I'm going to be late to work anyway since I'll need to change first, but at least we can swap phone numbers and meet up later?"

"Yeah, that sounds great and," Barry checked his phone for the time, grimacing a little. "I'm going to be late too. Hopefully Captain Singh will understand."

Despite meaning only to swap numbers with Hartley, the two linger a little longer. They exchange information on what their jobs are and Barry can barely contain himself when Hartley admits to working at STAR Labs. Hartley seems fascinated by Barry's job too. They make plans to meet back at Jitters that evening at seven and Barry is just over the moon by the time he's walking in, very late and still coffee-stained, to the CCPD. He changes in the locker room to spare clothes he keeps in case of emergency and then heads to his lab... where Captain Singh is waiting impatiently.

"Do you know how late you are," the Captain demands, not looking happy in the slightest.

"I'm sorry, Captain," Barry squeaks out meekly. "It won't happen again." He hurries and pulls out the report he'd planned to hand in... a glance at the clock tells him he should have had it to Singh's office twenty minutes ago. He cringes further and hands over the file.

"It had better not or I'll be looking for a new... B-Mr. Allen, is that..." Singh was staring at Barry's now colorful soulmark. "You met your soulmate."

"Yeah. I was, uh, trying out the new coffee place down the street this morning. CC Jitters. And I ran into him. Literally. Coffee everywhere. It's... it's why I was late. And I'm really sorry I was late, sir." Barry's swallowing hard because, shit, what if he'd finally annoyed Captain Singh enough to get fired?

"Well, if ever there was a good excuse to be late, I suppose that meeting your soulmate and getting covered in coffee isn't the worst." Singh's eyes are relaxed now and there's definitely a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Barry unwinds a little.

"Just don't ever be this late again, Barry," Singh warned. "Congratulations on meeting your soulmate, Barry. Why don't you go tell Joe?"

Barry grinned. "Thank you."

* * *

It was Cisco Ramon's first day of work and Hartley was late coming in to work. Cisco actually got there before Hartley.

Eobard had been scowling (not pouting) at the chess board that he and Hartley were supposed to be finishing up a game they'd started the evening before, but no Hartley. Then Cisco showed up, bright eyed and bushy tailed and so eager to make a good first impression. He was like a cute little puppy and as adorable as Eobard found him, he was kind of looking forward to Hartley showing up, seeing Cisco's outfit, and kicking the puppy.

So Eobard was... a little shocked when Hartley breezed in five minutes later with coffee in hand and an absolutely massive dorky grin on his face.

"Sorry I'm late, Harrison," Hartley apologized, still smiling with enough mega-watts to power the high-beams on a freight truck. "I had to run back by my apartment after getting coffee to change. I... this is going to sound so cliched, but I ran into my soulmate. Literally. We got coffee all over us, it was like every bad rom-com ever."

"And yet you couldn't look happier," Eobard drawled. "Good for you. What's his name?"

"Barry Allen," Hartley rocked on his heels, smile actually managing to go up a few levels in blindingly happy. "He's a forensic scientist. And so cute. Oh wow, he's so cute."

"Dude, that's awesome. Congratulations on finding your soulmate," Cisco chirped enthusiastically.

"Thanks... you must be Cisco Ramon, the new hire Harrison's been telling me all about." Hartley stuck his hand out congenially, making an honest-to-goodness great first impression on Cisco Ramon and raining on Eobard's puppy-kicking parade. "I'm Hartley Rathaway. Nice to meet you."

Dammit. Eobard had been looking forward to the sarcastic sniping he'd predicted. Now he was going to have to find his entertainment elsewhere.

* * *

Barry grinned and pecked Hartley on the cheek. "Thanks for coming with me."

"I have been wanting to meet him too, you know." Hartley reached over and linked their hands. "He's your dad."

They were let into a small room where their visit with Henry Allen could be monitored and the guard left to go get Henry. Barry paced nervously while Hartley seated himself at the table.

"Barry, relax. It's going to be fine."

"I just... I've never brought anyone to meet him before."

Hartley snorted in amusement. "Does that make me special?"

Pausing in his nervous pacing, Barry smiled shyly at Hartley. "Very special."

"I don't expect him to like me because I'm your soulmate. But... I think he will like me because I make you smile like that." Hartley reached over and took Barry's hands in his again. "Sit down. Your pacing makes me tired just watching."

Laughing softly, Barry joined Hartley at the table just in time for the guard to let Henry in. Barry popped out of his seat even though he wasn't allowed to actually hug his father. Hartley tugged him back down while Henry was cuffed to the table and the guard went to stand by the door.

Hartley shook Henry's hand after Barry greeted his father. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Allen."

"Please, Hartley, call me Henry. I'm very glad to meet you too. Barry's told me a lot about you."

* * *

It was six weeks before the accelerator was slated to start up and Eobard was suddenly faced with an awful, awful problem.

Hartley had just sent in a request to discuss a flaw he'd discovered in the accelerator. He wanted to discuss postponing the accelerator's start date until the flaw could be fixed. He was going to go take stock of the flaw in person tonight and then could they meet up in the morning and go from there?

In a perfect world, Eobard would just fire Hartley. Maybe screw Hartley's career over for good measure. Because, honestly, what did friendship matter in the face of a fifteen-year-long revenge scheme?

But... Hartley was Barry's soulmate. The two of them were sickeningly cute together. Firing Hartley was not the way into Barry Allen's good books.

Which meant Eobard was going to have to think fast if he was going to fix the problem quickly and efficiently.

He could... no, that would never fly.

Maybe he could... no, that wasn't any good either.

What about... no. Just no.

Sabotage. What if he went in and... pointed out other flaws. Claimed he'd discovered them in the last few days and it was sabotage, someone who'd altered the accelerator plans, screwing them over from the inside out... Eobard didn't even need a real scapegoat. And as long as he could speed-finish the accelerator himself - easy enough at this point - he'd be able to set off the accelerator on time regardless.

Eobard spent the rest of the afternoon rehearsing his story, then met Hartley in the pipeline that evening. Trotted out his new sob story of some awful person sabotaging his dead soulmate's legacy and watched as Hartley ever so sympathetically lapped it up.

* * *

"I can't even imagine," Barry says, rubbing Hartley's shoulder as they cuddled on the couch. "That's just awful. How long do you think the project will be delayed?"

"I don't know yet. Harrison doesn't think we've found all the sabotage yet and... I'm worried we're going to have to rip out sections of the accelerator entirely and restart from scratch. It's... this is going to sound terrible, but I thought... when Harrison first showed up in the pipeline, I thought he was going to fire me. I could tell he knew about the sabotage already and... I don't even know why I thought that," Hartley shivered and snuggled closer into Barry's arms. "He's my friend, I should trust him more than that."

"You do trust him, Hart," Barry reassured him. "But... you look up to him; he's your mentor, your... well... father figure."

"Oh..." Hartley's eyes widened. "He is kind of parental to me isn't he? And after what my parents did to me..." Hartley trailed off and finally relaxed with a sigh. "Still, its weird that he said he stumbled onto the evidence of the sabotage earlier this week, but he never said anything until now? And I couldn't tell anything was wrong with him at all until tonight. I've never... I've never heard him talk about Tess Morgan so much, though. It must be really painful for him, even after all these years, to have lost his soulmate like that..."

Barry tightens his arms around Hartley, thinking of his own father's devastation at the loss of Nora Allen. The once bright soulmark on his father's neck fading away to nothing. Shuddering a little himself, Barry kissed Hartley's forehead.

"I love you, Hart," he murmurs and feels warmed inside when Hartley returns the sentiment.

* * *

On the day the accelerator was planned to go off, there were no crowds around STAR Labs, no reporters, no protesters. Just Eobard dressed in yellow, feeling more like himself than he normally did - feeling like he'd look in the mirror and see his own face instead of Harrison Wells - and he ran inside. Turned things on. Posed to smile for the camera before running out.

Back at home, his phone's alarm was going off, 'alerting' Eobard as Harrison Wells to the Reverse Flash's sabotage. So he drove to the accelerator, arriving at STAR Labs well within the forty-five minute time limit he had to 'fix' things so that dark matter was expelled into the growing storm.

Hartley, Cisco, Ronnie, and Caitlin were all there too. And when the dust settled, Hartley was sent to the hospital in intense pain from a meta power Eobard never would have guessed was lurking inside the young genius. Across town, Barry Allen was also being rushed to the hospital, struck by lightning and in a coma.

* * *

Barry never sees the text Hartley sends him, about the saboteur activating the accelerator. But he does see the wave of power coming off STAR Labs through his window. He's headed for the door, planning to beg Joe to drive him to STAR Labs now, when he steps into the pool of water from the leaking skylight. He reaches out to push the chain hanging down out of his way and...

There's electricity and then pain and then nothing.

He sleeps through Joe's fears for Barry's survival and Iris' first meeting with Eddie where they barely realize they're soulmates - haven't even introduced themselves properly yet - before she's flinging herself into Eddie's arms and crying about Barry. He misses out on Hartley showing up a day later, cringing from Joe's anger, and in so much pain from hearing too much. Hartley's using ASL because he can't hear, because he's effectively deaf now, and Joe's temper abates as he realizes Hartley's been affected by the fallout from that night too.

He sleeps through Harrison Wells grand speeches and offers to help mitigate some of the costs for Barry's healthcare... but also Eobard's whispered threats of the nightmare to come.

When Barry wakes, it's to Hartley asleep with his face pressed against Barry's side, sitting in a chair and slumped uncomfortably against the medical bed that Barry's laying in. Barry doesn't call for anyone at first because as much as he wants answers and to have someone remove the catheter and IV, Hartley looks exhausted and Barry wants to let him sleep just that little bit longer.

But eventually Hartley wakes and calls for Caitlin to help remove Barry from all the medical machines. They tell him how much time he's lost and some of the oddities of his coma. And then Caitlin leaves to call Joe and Iris and the others as well as give Barry and Hartley some privacy together, though Dr. Wells pokes his head in at one point before very quietly disappearing back into the hallway.

Hartley kisses Barry with an unfamiliar urgency and then burrows into Barry's embrace as he begins to cry. They're still curled up together, Hartley's sobs having tapered off though his face was still blotchy from tears, by the time the Wests arrive.

* * *

It turns out Hartley's meta ability is enhanced hearing. But its not something he has any control over, so he builds himself new hearing aids with Ronnie and Cisco's help.

While the police are chasing their tails trying to find the man in yellow, Henry Allen's case is reopened. It's not enough, yet, to release Henry from jail. But there's reasonable doubt now; Henry's got a shot at appealing his sentence. Eobard's keeping an eye on that, though, because Henry's more useful to Eobard's plans in jail than out of it. But there's no suspicion on Eobard and the press is easy enough to manipulate.

STAR Labs is simply the tragic victim of sabotage. Terrorism is suspected, or at least that's the rumor Eobard anonymously starts. In this paranoid era, its spread so far and so fast that the lie quickly becomes the accepted truth. Eobard regretfully accepts the resignation of a number of employees. He quietly retires others, then whittles away the rest until he's left with only Hartley, Cisco, Ronnie, and Caitlin along with a single janitor who comes by on the weekends.

Of course, somewhere in there, Eobard takes the time to ingratiate himself with Joe West. Hartley, you see, is a dear friend. Like family to Eobard. And that makes Hartley's soulmate like family too. The medical bills must be a terrible burdon; perhaps they could transfer Barry to STAR Labs and what's left of his employees could dedicate their time to waking the poor boy up?

Joe West is more suspicious than Eobard likes, but he's sold on Eobard's 'like a family' speech. Barry comes to STAR Labs and there's more than a few nights that Eobard catches Hartley sobbing over Barry's unconscious form in the cortex.

There's something not unlike guilt in Eobard's chest that he doesn't like feeling.

Even though he knows he shouldn't, he should let this play out naturally... Eobard calls a spark of the Speed Force to his hand one evening. Out of camera view. No one can see him gently touch Barry's hand with that spark while he talks out loud to the coma patient about needing to wake up soon for Hartley's sake.

Thirty minutes later, Barry Allen is awake. Instead of a nine month coma, he was only asleep for three.

Watching Barry and Hartley's reunion, Eobard remarks to himself he's going soft.

* * *

Captain Singh pauses the video from the STAR Labs security cameras, captured the night the accelerator was turned on.

"That's what I saw the night my mother was killed," Barry said, voice hoarse with shock. "That's the man I saw. The man in the lightning."

On the screen, a man in a yellow suit smirked at the camera, red electricity obscuring his eyes and trailing at his heels. "He's the one who sabotaged the STAR Labs accelerator?"

Joe nodded. "This coupled with your testimony about the night your mother was killed should be enough to prove your father's innocence. It's still going to take time before he's officially released, but..."

"But he's going to be free," Barry lets out a shaky breath, almost unable to believe it. He's wanted this from the moment his father was arrested, for people to believe him when he said his father was innocent... to believe that the man in yellow was real. "I... I think I need a minute. Can I...?" He stood up and not really waiting for permission, he slipped out of the room and went upstairs to his lab. He was nearly hyperventilating by the time he sat at his desk.

Hartley followed him in and rubbed his back slowly until Barry's breathing evened back out. "Are you going to be okay, sweetheart?" Hartley asked, kissing Barry's temple.

Barry's head bobbed affirmatively. "I just... its a lot to take in. People have been telling me he's guilty and that I imagined the man in the lightning so I wouldn't have to deal with what really happened that night and... it's been hard, believing in myself. Sometimes... sometimes I was afraid believing he was real meant I was crazy. I was so grateful when you said you believed me..."

"I was the one who found the footage," Hartley said quietly. "The computers were damaged and the cctv footage was nearly lost. I restored it because I needed something to distract me from how much I was hurting and... when I found that... All I wanted was for you to wake up and get the validation you've deserved all these years."

"You know, sometimes you're so wonderful, I can't believe you're real," Barry muttered, blushing.

"I feel the same way about you sometimes too," Hartley replied, cupping Barry's cheek and tilting his face up for a gentle kiss. "I love you, Barry."

* * *

Having been woken early, Barry's powers aren't accessible yet. His body and mind are still undergoing changes and, having been woken too early, it's hard for Eobard to gauge whether this will slow Barry's progress or not. Now something is going to have to trigger Barry's powers instead of him simply waking up with them active.

Eobard sees how happy Hartley is, though, and can't bring himself to regret it. Friendship was odd that way, Eobard supposed. And Hartley deserved all the happiness he could get now because the poor kid was going to be devastated when Eobard finally bested the Flash once and for all and Barry died.

* * *

Barry never expected to meet Hartley's parents, but when their newest painting is stolen by notorious criminals Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, Barry finds himself called to the gallery where it was on display to collect evidence. Rachel and Osgood Rathaway are there and Barry is grateful to be wearing gloves so they can't see his wrist.

He doesn't want to risk them seeing his soulmark; he doesn't want to deal with the possibility of them recognizing the image. Because if they ask Barry about Hartley, he's not sure he can stay polite to them.

Everything is going fine until Barry's stripping off his right glove, which tore after snagging on a piece of metal. Rachel Rathaway sees Barry's wrist while giving her statement to Eddie and she gasps in shocked recognition, reaching out to snag Barry's wrist with her hand.

"That's... that's Hartley's soulmark." She just stares, not letting go, and Barry has to tug sharply to pull out of her grasp.

"Hartley is my soulmate," Barry confirmed quietly. "But you disowned him. So it isn't really any business of yours, is it?"

Rachel flinches and looks away. "Tell him... please tell him I'm sorry."

"If you really meant that, you'd apologize to him yourself."

* * *

In the midst of his obsession with Barry, Eobard had not forgotten that his own family line was in jeopardy thanks to Iris West now being Eddie Thawne's soulmate. And Eddie - why Eddie? Edward was a much more respectable name and Eobard was a future derivative of that name; it was a strong family name and Eddie just wasn't... Eobard did not approve of the nickname - was just a disappointment all around. A police officer. A detective.

Eobard's ancestral line was made up of politicians and scientists, the real movers and shakers of history and... Eddie Thawne, a complete and utter nobody. And, frustratingly enough, Eobard's every attempt to get Eddie to make a donation to a sperm bank failed. There were still a few more years left before James Thawne was meant to be born, but... now Eddie and Iris knew each other. They were dating. It was getting serious awfully fast.

Worse yet, Monica Myers was nowhere to be found. Eobard was starting to fear that was an assumed name. Because if Gideon couldn't find her then that meant she didn't exist.

Eobard was getting extremely nervous about the possibility that he was going to wind up back in the future only to find out that his family line had never existed. He did not want to become a Time Remnant. Time Wraiths were not fun to play with and he'd been damn lucky to avoid them so far.

* * *

Hartley is straddling Barry's lap and their shirts are... somewhere on the floor, neither's quite sure where. Hartley's hands are on the fly of Barry's pants when Barry vibrates.

There's no other description for what happens. Barry's hips jerk against Hartley's hands while Barry's eyes flutter shut and he bites his lower lip, head tilted back to bare his neck in a submissive gesture that Hartley loves to take advantage of... and then suddenly Barry's whole body vibrates.

Hartley stops what he's doing immediately. "What was that?"

Barry flushes and blinks, pulling out of his pleasured haze. "I... I don't know."

Gathering up their clothes, Hartley swats Barry with his missing shirt. "Get dressed, we're going to have Caitlin look you over, okay?"

Groaning, Barry dresses. "I'm fine, Hartley. I'm also horny. We can talk to Caitlin later..." he trails off as Hartley deliberately pulls out his phone and gives Barry an unimpressed look.

"When you were in your coma, you had... seizures, for lack of a better word. Seizures where you'd start vibrating, where your heart was beating so fast we couldn't register the beat. Before we brought you to STAR Labs, the doctors treating you thought your heart had stopped. They kept..." Hartley closed his eyes and pursed his lips, shaking his head. "Please, Barry. Let Caitlin check you over, okay? For me?"

Barry nodded meekly. "Sorry."

"Maybe it is nothing. Maybe its something. I just... I need to be sure, okay?"

Caitlin was happy to give Barry a quick check up for Hartley's peace of mind, though she'd have preferred it waited until morning instead of seven pm on a Saturday.

"Well, you seem fine now. What were you two doing when the seizure happened?"

"Uh, well," Barry and Hartley traded a look, blushing.

"Right, I can guess," Caitlin said, blushing a little herself.

"I... don't think it was a seizure," Barry said, thinking back on how he'd felt when he'd vibrated. He concentrated on the memory and replicating that feeling and... it was like the world slowed down. Or maybe he'd sped up. Barry stood up and took a few steps forward and then the feeling wore off and time returned to normal.

"Whoa! How did you move that fast?" Hartley demanded, looking fascinated despite himself.

"I think maybe there were some side effects from that lightning strike besides my sudden healing factor."

* * *

Barry's powers show up right on schedule after all. The Weather Wizard - the first one, anyway - starts robbing banks about nine months post accelerator snafu, and Barry starts speed running about the same time.

Given the heated looks between Hartley and Barry, Barry's powers have spiced up their sex lives and that is way more than Eobard ever wanted to know about Hartley's sex life. If it were just Barry, Eobard wouldn't give a damn, but... Hartley is kind of... well... shit, he really is kind of like family at this point. So are Cisco and Ronnie and Caitlin and when the hell did that happen?

Eobard starts brooding more often and takes the cameras out of Barry's bedroom. He takes out all the cameras in Hartley's apartment. He's suddenly not at all sure he's comfortable with breaking Hartley's heart by killing Barry.

Maybe he'll leave Barry alive, but incapable of ever running again? Not a bad plan, really.

* * *

Running is exhilarating at inhuman speeds. Barry loves it. The rest of the world slows to a crawl and he just... blurs through. It's amazing. And a little terrifying and humbling and...

The first time he sets his clothes on fire, Hartley cannot stop laughing at him. Barry's pretty sure it'd be another story if not for his speed healing, but a few burns really don't hurt Barry anymore, so... it is pretty hilarious, honestly. But also, now Barry is wearing out his shoes ridiculously fast. He has no idea how he's going to support his grocery bill, though Dr. Wells is pitching in for now. Barry's not entirely sure if that's contingent upon letting STAR Labs study him, though mostly that means doing Caitlin's bidding and Barry's fine with that.

Barry wasn't really thinking 'superhero' though until the Weather Wizard robs his third bank and Barry realizes that not only is one of the Mardon brothers still alive but he's got powers too. Cisco and Hartley, fortunately enough, had been working on a prototype firefighter suit that can withstand the friction of Barry's high speeds. Ronnie talks Barry through the speeds he'll need to reach to unwind the Weather Wizard's tornado when he attacks Joe and Eddie. Caitlin gives Barry the fast acting sedative he needs to dose Clyde Mardon with so he can be safely taken into custody.

And, suddenly, Barry can't get enough of the superhero gig. A section of Iron Heights is adapted to hold metas and suppress their powers. And, with the quiet support of the CCPD, Barry takes on criminal metas who attack the city. Sometimes he helps fight fires, too. And stop bank robberies. And apparently become the newest game for Snart and Rory, who are doing the Super Villain equivalent of playing tag. (Barry actually says that to them at one point and he swears Leonard Snart pouts.)

Barry's not the only one making a name for himself, though. Hartley starts up a outreach program for helping people learn to cope with the dark matter induced powers they have. Some people see their meta abilities as gifts, others as curses. One of the program's first success stories is a man named Farooq Gibran whose electrokinesis had given him an insatiable hunger for electricity... but also inadvertently killed his friends the night the accelerator blew. But with Hartley and Ronnie's help, Farooq was able to use tech to stabilize his abilities. They helped him hold a memorial service for his friends and even named the fledgling program the Davenport-Kim Foundation in their honor.

* * *

Eobard's first outing versus Barry as the Reverse Flash is exhilarating. He's missed the rush that came from fighting Barry.

Except, Hartley starts getting secretive afterwards. Developing something he won't let Eobard see because its a surprise to protect Barry.

Torn between the urge to be nosy and all knowing and the urge to... respect his friend's boundaries (an unfamiliar urge, to be sure), Eobard becomes even moodier and eventually gives in to the desire to snoop.

Hartley is developing gloves. Sonic weaponry with lovely flute-inspired design. Eobard's proud. Hartley probably means to fight alongside his boyfriend versus the evil Reverse Flash. It's sweet. Useless and pointless, but sweet.

Eobard doesn't even notice the flute in the corner.

* * *

Barry and Farooq have the Reverse Flash distracted, but Hartley knows at this point they're not going to win. The Reverse Flash is going to get away, again.

"Cisco," Hartley says over the comms, "turn on the sound dampeners." Hartley's scrambling to pull off his gloves so he can grab his flute - his next set of gloves need to be fingerless for exactly this reason, why didn't he think of this during the initial design phase?

"What? But they'll be..." Cisco tries to object.

"Effectively deaf, yes, but they know this is coming. Just do it." Hartley pulls out his flute, brings it to his lips, and waits half a heartbeat for Cisco's response.

"Done."

Hartley starts playing at the same moment both Barry and Farooq stumble a bit at the sudden lack of sound. But the Reverse Flash can still hear.

More importantly, the Reverse Flash can hear Hartley's music. The song doesn't matter, merely the harmonics that Hartley plays, trigger a hypnotic state in the ears of the listeners. Cisco and the others should be fine thanks to the comms not being able to relay the full sound. But the Reverse Flash has no defenses and he sways to a halt.

Barry and Farooq make quick work of knocking the yellow-clad speedster unconscious and Hartley lets the flute fall away from him lips.

"Cisco, turn off the dampeners. The Reverse Flash is down. We're good."

Hartley joined the other two men standing over the Reverse Flash.

"So, who is he, anyway?" Hartley asked while Barry leaned down to pull the cowl off the other speedster's face.

"Dr. Wells?" Barry and Farooq gasp in shock while Hartley staggers back a step, voice small and fragile as he says, "Harrison? No..."

No one sleeps well that night.

* * *

Eobard could kick himself for never making the connection between Hartley Rathaway and the criminal from his own timeline, the Pied Piper. But, well, the Piper had always been so small time. Just a blip on the Flash's radar and tangled more with Kid Flash than the Flash himself. He'd been beneath Eobard's notice.

Well, Eobard is noticing now. If only because, in addition to the gloves (which had nearly sheered him apart when he'd broken Barry's arm and thoroughly pissed Hartley off the first time Hartley wears them in a fight) Hartley had a flute.

Of course the Pied Piper had a damn flute. The soulmark made so much sense now.

And because the pipeline prison plan fell through due to other people having ethics and morals and inconvenient crap like that, Eobard was now sitting in a high security prison cell in Iron Heights, surrounded by anti-meta tech, and barely able to feel the Speed Force.

But he could feel it. And one day...

One day he'd have his revenge. He just needed to plan better next time. And maybe scold Gideon for not telling him Hartley Rathaway was the freaking Pied Piper.

* * *

"My name is Gideon. I was developed by Dr. Barry Allen and his husband, Dr. Hartley Allen, some years from now. This copy of my program was stolen by Professor Eobard Thawne many years after my creation. He wanted to use me as a resource to defeat you. Instead, I've been subtly fighting back against him."

"Would you tell us how you've been doing that?" Barry asked, sounding a bit shocked and more than a little proud already.

"We're gonna have an AI baby," Hartley muttered, looking absolutely gleeful.

Cisco snorted in amusement at Hartley's pronouncement.

"Well, Edward Thawne is a family name that has repeated several times throughout the Thawne family's history. Particularly in the last several generations. When Eobard arrived in the past, he mistook the current Edward Thawne as the Edward Thawne who was soulmates with Monica Myers and had a son named James. That Edward was actually this Edward's grandfather. James Thawne was the current Edward Thawne's father, who had two sons: Edward and Malcolm. Eobard Thawne is descended from Malcolm's line, not Edward's."

"You can call him Eddie, you know. Just to make differentiating which Edward is which easier for the rest of us, if nothing else," Barry told the AI, though he looked amused by her story nonetheless.

"Ah, yes. Then, to be clear, Eobard Thawne is descended from Malcolm Thawne and not Eddie Thawne."

"So... you've been distracting him with the idea that Eddie being Iris' soulmate would erase Eobard's family line?" Caitlin asked, leaning back into her husband's embrace.

"Yes. He also wasted a great deal of time trying to track down Monica Myers. She doesn't exist, of course, having died some two years before Professor Thawne began looking for her. He'd begun to suspect it was a pseudonym and had been effectively... chasing his own tail trying to find her."

"Gideon," Hartley declared, patting her pedestal, "I am so proud of you, sweetie."

"Thank you, father. I try."

Barry just buried his face against Hartley's shoulder and gave in to the urge to just laugh and laugh.

* * *

Notes: Farooq gets to be the hero Blackout here. Dude deserved better than he got on the show.


End file.
